In February next year Netflix are releasing ‘The Magician’s Nephew’, and you may be aware of reactions to the recent announcement that Meryl Streep will be the voice of Aslan.
CS Lewis’s much-loved story first appeared in 1955 and is one of the seven book series, ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’. It tells us how Narnia came into being and how evil entered Aslan’s beautiful and good creation.
The nephew in the title is Digory, whose mother is ill and dying, and the theme of loss runs through the story as Digory fears that his mother will die and longs to find a cure that will save her. CS Lewis knew loss and grief in his own life. His mother died when he was only nine years old. In his autobiography, ‘Surprised by Joy’, he says, “With my mother’s death all settled happiness, all that was tranquil and reliable, disappeared from my life.” Later, he was injured whilst serving in the First World War and his close friend Paddy Moore was killed.
There is a moving paragraph in Digory’s story when he asks if Aslan can provide something that will cure his mother. As Digory looks up into Aslan’s face … “What he saw surprised him as much as anything in his whole life. For the tawny face was bent down near his own and (wonder of wonders) great shining tears stood in the Lion’s eyes. They were such big, bright tears compared with Digory’s own that for a moment he felt as if the Lion must really be sorrier about his Mother than he was himself.”
In ‘The Problem of Pain’, published in 1940, Lewis had discussed, in a detached way, the reasonableness of belief in a good and powerful God in the face of suffering. Later, he wrote a rather different book. He had married Joy Davidman, but after her death following cancer, his ‘A Grief Observed’, was an outpouring of emotion, expressing the pain of loss.
When my father died we included a quote from CS Lewis in his Thanksgiving Order of Service. It comes from ‘The Last Battle’, the final book in the Narnia series. “All their life in this world … had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story, which no one on earth has read, which goes on forever, in which every chapter is better than the one before.”
CS Lewis knew the sadness of loss in his life and in his writings he expressed the difference his Christian faith made in the face of grief. He thought it is reasonable to believe in a God who is good and powerful despite the reality of suffering. He prayed to a God who wept with him and understood his honest anger and raw emotions. He was confident that beyond death he could look forward to the joy of a hope filled future.
‘Open Book, Open Mind’ is meeting at the moment and we have just begun discussing ‘The Magician’s Nephew’. We meet on Mondays (there’s a choice of 10.30 am or 7.30 pm). It is not too late to join in.
With best wishes, Stephen